Friday links: bodies lost, bodies found, thefts, and replicas

Photographer: Robert Howlett | Isambard Kingdom Brunel, builder of the Great Eastern | ca. 1857-1858 | George Eastman House, eastmanhouse.org

Some stories we’ve been reading this week:

• In 1936, an art dealer inexplicably sawed off the upper half of Lucas Cranach’s “Bowl With the Head of John the Baptist” (the part with the body). People are still looking for it.
• And speaking of bodies, Don Quixote writer Cervantes’ bones were recently discovered in Madrid. Now they need to sort them out from those of his wife.
• This week marked the 25th anniversary of the theft of 13 works of art from the Isabella Gardner Museum. The museum offers a fascinating presentation on the crime, which remains unsolved.
• Two artists are building meticulous scale models recreating iconic photographs. The results are impressive, and puzzling.
• We might be afraid of insects, but we love these beautiful Art Nouveau-era pochoir prints of the critters. (Artstor features a great collection of pochoir prints from the New York School of Interior Design, by the way.)
• An upcoming exhibition at Tate Britain is using interactive technology to experiment with how non-visual senses, such as smell, change the way people interpret visual art.